Church reform and cardinals in early modern Italy: Suggestions from the Libellus ad Leonem X (1513) by Paolo Giustiniani and Pietro Querini

Author(s): Fabrizio Conti / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This paper addresses the issue of reforming the College of Cardinals as one specific aspect of the call to reform the early-modern Catholic Church that Paolo Giustiniani and Pietro Querini addressed in a Libellus to Pope Leo X in 1513. According to the two Camaldolese reformers, the failure of individuals within various ranks of the Church to pursue their duties with all due moral and legal attention was leading to decadence within the Church, resulting in decadence and a lack of justice within society as a whole. Their Libellus aimed to provide the Pope with the instruments needed for the religious and economic reform of the powerful institution of the College of Cardinals, proposed as one step towards a more comprehensive – and eventually only theoretical – plan for Church reform. Both the excesses and the potential of the Renaissance Church are at the core of Querini and Giustiniani’s proposals; they argued that by resolving the former, the Church would be able to draw upon its strengths to become a more perfect instrument for bringing morality to the world.

The “manger” of the elites? The town council of Sibiu (ca. 1700-1750)

Author(s): Sever Cristian Oancea / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This article addresses the formation and consolidation of urban power elites during the first half of the eighteenth century. Drawing on the critiques expressed by the Lutheran pastor Georg Soterius, through the frame of Wolfgang Reinhard’s “classical” definition of social networks in the Early Modern Era, this study questions to what extent we may refer to an absolute apanage of the elites over the recruitment process. The article first addresses the meaning of “elites” and their main features in the eighteenth century, focusing on the mélange between old patrician regulations and new aristocratic trends, born in the context of the Habsburg reign in Transylvania. Secondly, it examines the empirical data regarding who was recruited to the town council and the percentage of non-Patrician town councilors. The findings concur with Gyula Székfű’s assertion that the town’s patriciate and pastor families represented one source of recruitment, but not the only one. A certain degree of social mobility can be observed, beyond that enabled by strategic marriages, which could be a result of individuals’ professional abilities; however, this hypothesis will have to be the focus of future research.

The temptation of a better life: Customs, rules, and abuses in the Uniate Diocese of Făgăraș in the eitghteenth century

Author(s): Greta-Monica Miron / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This study examines the involvement of political and confessional decision-makers in enacting legislation governing the fees collected by the Uniate clergy in the Diocese of Făgăraș (primarily stole fees), as well as the interests the clergy pursued and their motivations. It also attempts to capture the actual situation in the parishes, which is depicted, albeit somewhat scantily, in various documents, most particularly in the records of canonical visitations and trial cases. The Uniate clergy advocated for maintaining the custom for economic reasons (their otherwise modest incomes) and out of the desire to preserve the rights they had enjoyed before the Union with the Church of Rome. The issue of these revenues was therefore also one of status, as illustrated by their repeatedly expressed desire to benefit from the same stole fees as the Roman Catholic priests. The Vienna Court and the Estates of Transylvania insisted on the replacement of customs with rules and norms. Desiring the removal of abuses committed by the local clergy, the Viennese Court approached this issue through the prism of the need to discipline and reform this body of priests. The Estates of Transylvania, reluctant to accept the rise of a privileged category, addressed the matter from an economic standpoint, expressing discontent that the rights and privileges acquired by the Uniate clergy might affect their revenues.

Câteva afaceri funciare pe cursul sinuos al Târnavei Mari în veacul al XVIII-lea

Author(s): Ela Cosma / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2016

The winding history both of the River Târnava Mare (Große Kokel, Nagy Küküllö) and its settlements are explored in this article through the lens of a unique moment, namely a visit by Emperor Joseph II on 1-2 June 1773. The area, the local people and the imperial visit are described at full length by Michael Conrad von Heydendorff Senior, a notarius in Mediaş (Mediasch). From his memoirs, we chose for the present article a few of the numerous variations on the theme of corruption in eighteenth century Transylvania: 1) litigation between the Armenians from the town of Dumbrăveni (Elisabetopolis, Elisabethstadt, Erzsébetváros) and the Saxons of Şaroş village (Scharosch, Sáros), in the Heveş (Heves) lawsuit (1773-1790), characterised by dishonest methods and bribery attempts; 2) the pretences advanced by the Bethlen family to the inheritance of the extinct Apafi family in Dumbrăveni and Mălâncrav (Almakerek), as well as the Bethlens’ defraudations during a long trial against the Austrian Fiscus and the Saxons; 3) extortion from serfs in the county of Târnava (Küküllö vármegye, Kokelburger Komitat) by the families Bánffi, Haller and, again, Bethlen; and 4) land sales and purchase in the same county practiced by aristocratic landowners who were guilty of spoliation, conflicts of interest, venality, cheating the Austrian state, forgery and the use of false (mercantile) matrimonies among other transgressions. These kinds of practices eventually led to the anger of Emperor Joseph II and his general aversion towards the Hungarian nobility, against whom he adopted firm measures.

Co nového v raném novověku

Author(s): Václav Bůžek,Josef Hrdlička,Monika Konrádová (Hrušková),František Koreš,Kateřina Pražáková / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2016

Zdánlivá smrt jako kulturotvorný fenomén

Author(s): Václav Grubhoffer / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2019

The present study deals with apparent death, a multi-layered theme running through European cultural history, cultural and culture-forming phenomenon, which is located on the border of historical eras, various scientific disciplines, serious research, and the area curiosities.

Olga Mavrocordat Sturdza

Author(s): Daniel Dieaconu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2019

Olga Mavrocordat Sturdza was one of the ladies of Romania who supported Queen Mary inthe fight for "front from home", activating in the societies that supported invalids, widows and warorphans. The most important social work of her remains, however, the “Society for the Protection ofOrphans of War”, which, under the government management, has dealt with the growth and educationof most of the orphans of the First World War. Owner of lands and forests, close to the royal dynasty,beginning with the establishment of the communist regime, Olga Mavrocordat Sturdza suffered incommunist prisons. She managed to leave the country, ending his days in France, away from thecountry and the nation she had fought for.

Nicolae Olaru: de la Roman la Tiumeni. Istoria deportatului numărul 506!

Author(s): Octavian Zelinski / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2019

I bring to your attention a sad story! The story of a man, Nicolae Olaru, who, like otherhundreds of thousands of Bessarabians, became a victim of the Soviet regime, being deported in 1949to Tiumeni. It came in 1956. The "Thaw" of the Khrushchev brought also the partial rehabilitation ofNicolae Olaru, and the return home. On February 18, 1991, the presidency of the Supreme Court ofthe SSM, comprising, by the way, the subsequent president of the country Nicolae Timofti, decided tocancel the convictions of the Olaru family and the rayon council Donduseni received instructions toreturn the confiscated property, but not until today the wealth has not been returned.

IV. Iván és I. Péter mikrohistoriográfiája

Author(s): Patrik Dinnyés / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

IV. Iván és I. Péter mikrohistoriográfiája [A micro-historiography of Ivan IV and Peter I). By Gyula Szvák. Edited by Gábor Klaniczay and István M. Szijártó. Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2019. 175 pp

Oroszország mint birodalom. Az Orosz Birodalom területe és népessége

Author(s): Gábor Gyóni / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2015

The article presents the historical evolution of the main attributes of the Russian Empire, starting from territorial expansion toward the West (historical East Poland and Ukraine), and the East (Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia). The progressive extension of Russian imperial statehood from the 16th century to the end of the 19th century also affected the ethnic and religious composition of the enlarged empire, and stimulated the emergence of modern national thinking among the greatest peoples of empire. The peculiar, step-by-step conquest of new territories boosted a new relationship between the centre and the internal peripheries, under the influence of various imperial ideologies.

Üzlet és szabály. Kereskedők és intézmények a 16–19. században

Author(s): Attila Tózsa-Rigó / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2017

Interessi e regole. Operatori e istituzioni nel commercio transalpino in età moderna (secoli XVI–XIX). A cura di Bonoldi, Andrea–Leonardi, Andrea–Occhi, Katia. Bologna, Società editrice il Mulino, 2012. 334 p. (Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento. Quaderni, 87.)

Mobilität und Migration in der Frühen Neuzeit

Author(s): Gábor Koloh / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Mobilität und Migration in der Frühen Neuzeit. By Márta Fata. Einführungen in die Geschichtswissenschaft. Frühe Neuzeit 1. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020. 248 pp.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREEK-CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF ORADEA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE BEIUŞ ESTATE CONSCRIPTION OF 1778

Author(s): Tiberiu Alexandru Ciorba / Language(s): English Issue: Sp.Issue/2021

The Beiuş estate conscription of 1778 holds valuable information regarding the fiscal state of the local population. The Greek-Catholic Diocese had just been created and it needed a source of income to sustain itself and at the same time to grow. This estate was one of the richest in the whole county, formed from 72 villages with Beiuş at its center. From buildings such as mills, inns and taverns, to farms and homes, they are all presented inside the document. Moise Dragoşi, the first Greek-catholic bishop of Oradea struggled to get this estate and it took four years. The conscription in this case represents not just an official piece of paper, but a window into the life of an eighteenth-century peasant.

SPIRU HARET ŞI ÎNVĂŢĂMÂNTUL PRIMAR MEHEDINŢEAN. STUDIU DE CAZ: ŞCOALA PRIMARĂ MIXTĂ DIN COMUNA GVARDENIŢA

Author(s): Gabriel Croitoru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: XIV/2013

The paper is dedicated to a microhistorical approach of what significance the raise of a new school builiding could have for a rural community. In the history of Gvardenita village, this event is related both to the efforts made by Spiru Haret, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Public Education at that time and the support of local notabilities. The document discovered by us, signed by the local teacher, Ştefan Păunescu, invited to a better reflection upon the relation memory-identity-affective framework of education in the beginning of 20th Century Romania.

Ludwisarze pogranicza śląsko-łużyckiego Georg Wield I i Georg Wield II oraz ich działalność na przełomie XVI i XVII wieku

Author(s): Michał Poźniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The paper presents profiles and contributions of two bell-founders – Georg WieldI (Sr.) and Georg Wield II (Jr.), who worked in the Silesian–Lusatian–Bohemian borderland at the turn of 16th and 17th century. In this period, many changes regarding campanology of this region occurred, encompassing alterations in bells’ shape, as well as in style of ornaments and forms of inscriptions placed on bells. Georg Wield I, son of Hans Weld Sr.,was born in Jáchymov and then moved to Szprotawa, where – as a burgher of this city – he commenced bell-founding. In 1593 he settled in Żytawa, where he entered the maturestage of his professional development. He was active as a bell-founder not only in LowerSilesia and Upper Lusatia, but also in neighboring Bohemia, where he worked, i.a., for the mighty von Redern family, casting, among other works, the bell for the Frydland castle. He died presumably in 1607, and his son, Georg Wield II (Jr.), took over the trade. Younger Wield continued the tradition of bell foundry and pewter-making in Żytawa, casting bells for local churches, as well as for more distant towns and villages. His activity in this trade is confirmed since 1608. Periodically, he collaborated with his paternal uncle Hans Wield Jr.Like his father, he provided services to the von Redern family. On the contemporary Polish territory bells casted by members of the Wield family, made with outstanding precision and meticulousness, can be found in the following towns and villages: Brzeźnica, Konin Żagański, Konotop, Skibice and Zawidów. The Lower Silesian voivodeship (province) is still poorly researched regarding campanology, and required studies on both bells and bell-founders.

Artykuły lwowskiej konfederacji wojska koronnego z 1622 roku

Author(s): Patryk Antos / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The present source edition contains the Articles decided for the Chocim military confederation, which are to guard our fair and good reputation [Artykuły postanowione do konfederacyjej chocimskiej żołnierskiej, które są stróżem uczciwego i dobrej sławy naszej]. At the beginning of the paper, the author provides basic information about military confederations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, presenting the most important literature pertaining their genesis at the turn of the 16th and 17th century and the relevant legal regulations of the time. The actions of the king and nobility aimed at counteracting such unions within the military were also briefly described. In order to depict the historical background of creation of the presented source, the history of the Lwów confederation was sketched – however, with focus on the moment of its formation and drawing up the published text. Moreover, the author also pointed out the most significant differences between the regulations set by the Articles of War binding the soldiers and the Articles enacted by the confederates. Finally, the introductory section includes a short description of the published text and speculations about the fate of the original document. The last and most important part of the present paper is the source text itself.

Akta sejmikowe jako źródło do dziejów miast i mieszczaństwa

Author(s): Kamila Bulińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The paper is an effort to present, on the examples of the dietine (sejmiki) of Poznań and Kalisz provinces from the years 1572–1632 and 1668–1763, the specific of material related to dietines in general, as well as to establish the potential of utilizing this material in research on cities and bourgeoisie of the modern era. Even though the dietine material has been preliminary identified as a source for investigating the history of cities and bourgeois, it is not widely used in such research nowadays. In the literature published to date and pertaining cities, only a few deepened studies on the policy of nobility regarding cities and bourgeois. In addition, on the basis of analysis of vast source material, the author proposes an attempt of classification of municipal issues debated by the dietine of Poznań and Kalisz provinces. This classification, although drawn on one example best documented to date, may prove useful in research on dietines of other provinces.

Vzájemná korespondence Antonína Škarky a Dmitrije Čyževského z období 1. 2. 1965 — 21. 4. 1966

Author(s): / Language(s): English Issue: 41/2022

Vážený pane profesore, děkuji Vám za Váš dopis a poslední zprávy.1 Navazuji na ně a zároveň přicházím s návrhy. Pořád Vám dobře nerozumím, jak má ta barokní knihovna2 vypadat. Chcete v ní vydávat jenom přetisky (faksimilia?) dřívějších vydání anebo dokonce původních starých textů (např. ten Michna), anebo také zcela nové edice? Z Vašeho dopisu vyrozumívám, že aspoň ten Bridel bude z větší části nějaká fotografická reprodukce vydání Vašicových (aspoň některých).3 Jestliže pomýšlíte však na edice nové, na texty dosud nepublikované, mohl bych Vám např. nabídnout celého Michnu (tj. Česká mariánská muzika 1647, Loutna česká 1653 a Svatoroční muzika 1661), kterého mám textově (nikoli hudebně) už dávno připraveného pro tisk. Poněvadž u nás se sotva objeví zájem o takové texty, byl bych ochoten nabídnout Vám tuto edici. Bylo by to vůbec prvé vydání celého Michny básníka.

Towards An Indigenous Church, 1965, 2nd ed. 1973, pp. 8, 15ff.

Author(s): David Daube / Language(s): English Issue: 09/1990

E. Bolaji Idowu (Towards An Indigenous Church, 1965, 2nd ed. 1973, pp. 8, 15ff.) pays generous tribute to the Europeans who, having received Christianity through Asians, shared it with Africans. He hopes that in due course it will be the latter’s turn to spread it. But to do so, he points out, they need first to attain full at-homeness in the family; and up-to-date translations of the Bible are an important step towards this end. The versions brought by the missionaries, however helpfully intended, do less than justice both to the Bible and to Nigeria. To the Bible: they proceed from the English text instead of from the original Hebrew-Greek one. To Nigeria: they evince an imperfect grasp of the various native languages, thus frequently leave the reader confused. The work, then, must be redone.

Az amerikai Mediterráneum fogalma és jellemzői

Author(s): Emőke Horváth / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2023

The study deals with an issue that has been little analysed by Hungarian historians. It attempts to interpret the concept of the American Mediterranean, to present its specific characteristics, and then makes a comparison between the European and the American Mediterranean. It tries to present those elements which can be mentioned as common features or as decisive differences between the two regions. It shows that, unlike the European Mediterranean, the American Mediterranean is not dominated by peninsulas, but by a series of islands (Lesser and Greater Antilles) that make up the American Mediterranean par excellence, which were also the sites of discovery and early colonisation. The paper draws attention to the existence of a cultural religious frontier within the Caribbean, i.e. the division of the American Mediterranean, just as it is the case with the European Mediterranean.